One topic that I am highly looking forward to is the historical roots that tie to communications expenditure from the start till now. Knowing for a fact, that communication has been here since the birth of humans and is what bonds us all together at the end of the day. I want to learn about the development of communications, and how we as a civilization have shaped it through development and modernization over the time frame, moreover how technologies have shaped the practice of communication as well.

Firstly, he created the infamous Canadian Transnational Railway with the means, this is such an important milestone for the history of communication in Canada because we could not only transport the means of goods across the country in trade, but we as Canadians could partake in a fast and efficient way to transport our ideas and beliefs as a nation through Canada's wide size which was enforced through policies and the federal concern (Thrift, A Brief History of Media, 2020, pp. 12 ). One thing that needs to remain clear and unforgotten is that the railway did enforce the protection and expansion of the Canadian identity, but the ethics backing the creation of it are not by any means fair or just.

Through McDonald's national policy, communication through means of radio was secured. Broadcasting was a way that Canada could bind a non-physical unity in the nation and secure a clear Canadian consciousness through a "virtual" force, this is why the Canadian Radio Broadcast System was developed ( Gasher, et al, 2020, pp. 47). It was a way that Canadian ideas and perspectives could be efficiently communicated through the touch of your fingers on the radio, easy and methodical to gain a grasp of. This form of communication also encouraged the elimination of any regional strains between the groups that made up the country, furthermore fortifying the sense of a strong merged nation.

References:

Gasher, M., Skinner, D., & Coulter, N. (2020a). Media and Communication in Canada: Networks, Culture, Technology, Audiences.

Thrift, Communications and Media Studies 201, (2023), A Brief History of Media, Pages

Image 1: Canadian Pacific Railway is completed. (n.d.). Your Museum. Your Stories. https://www.historymuseum.ca/blog/canadian-pacific-railway-is-completed/

This is through the action of representation, and how the encoder creates certain ideas and meanings into a media source that is then put out to the masses to interpret( Gasher, et al, 2020, pp. 61 ). To explain this in further detail as a huge Boston Red Sox fan I chose the "Reach New Heights" 2018 campaign that was created to promote buying summer season tickets, many differentiating meanings were brought into play when creating and producing this campaign to the public.

Firstly the generalized purpose of this ad is as stated to promote sales for the purchasing of tickets for the new upcoming 2018 baseball season kick-off. Which is positively reinforced with many symbols and imagery within the campaign. Another meaning is persuaded by the use of imagery with the amazing picture of outfielder Jackie Bradly. Jr executing an exceptional pop fly rebound catch off the back wall. Pushing the message of "Reaching new heights" reinforces not only the boundless and risk-taking energy and goals that the team wants to encapsulate by throwing off the new season on a high ball but also encourages the fans to reach those new heights with them by purchasing tickets! They can reach these new heights and accomplishments alongside the team as the fans. Lastly one of the key messages mended into this source of media is that it shows the high ideals and expectations that the players hold for each other and themselves, pushing themselves to make that catch, dive for that ball, and drive that bat hard (Boston Red Sox | Season Campaign | CTP Boston, n.d.). The great thing about this campaign is that the Red Sox did win the 2018 World Series. Shining the positive atmosphere and message that they promoted in the campaign and did in fact push themselves past those challenges and heights.

References:

Boston Red Sox | Season Campaign | CTP Boston. (n.d.)(Print Campaign image). CTP.https://www.ctpboston.com/work/boston-red-sox/season-campaign/

Gasher, M., Skinner, D., & Coulter, N. (2020a). Media and Communication in Canada: Networks, Culture, Technology, Audiences.

To get into more detail about these concepts of brand motives, Klein starts her explanations with examples from the past, more so how these original brands aimed toward capturing a motive, and how they created it. She stated that these brands needed to become aware of these brand epiphanies, looking at the way consumers were thinking more so than thinking about the product itself (Klein. Naomi, 1970-. 2002, No Logo). It is extremely intriguing to me that these brands here are so focused on how the consumers were conceptualizing things rather than focusing just on what they thought the products needed to be. Klein goes on to explain how these brands would create outlets of relation, brand mascots more specifically which would help create this connected relationship from the audience to the source itself. They wanted to sell ideas and not put a focus on the products since they would be bought if they could persuasively sell dreams and relations of meaning to what the buyer will gain personally (Klein. Naomi, 1970-. 2002, No Logo). Evolving, these consumers slowly gain new wants and needs, which these brands need to develop alongside and produce more products that can sell an idea. Some ideas are so highly drawn to that they become the consumer's whole world, they become a brand nirvana for the people to partake in, and the brand becomes the structure of life people decide to follow(Klein. Naomi, 1970-. 2002, No Logo).

I feel as though this essence of the highest form of association with brands and products just from the identity it creates within us has grown more and more throughout history. This is due to the creation of social media and uprising relations with trends and different norms. Social media gives brands a way of displaying their identities so much more accessible through short easy posts, algorithms, and content reachability. These brands almost let the consumers create trends on discovered products, which then the individuals can promote, and help gain revenue for sales through trendy commodities. People want to be identified with a product from how it makes them look and feel, and it has straightforwardly been this way throughout the history of brands' creation of media to the consumers.

References:

Klein, Naomi, 1970-. (2002). No space, no choice, no jobs, no logo. New York :Picador : Distributed by Holtzbrinck Publishers,

Consumer Protection Hub. (2018, November 24). No logo: Brands, Globalization, Resistance (Featuring Naomi Klein) - full movie [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeTgLKNb5R0

Now this does not drive away the fact that they sourced their port of production from sweatshops in the not-so far past just to deliver some nice old American fast fashion to the new teens and young adults that can be over-consumed and end up in a goodwill rack years or months later. You are "American Made" when you wear American apparel all because you are wearing a brand that you nationally can identify with. As stated in a prior journal entry, these highly globalized brands are selling this idea to their products which the consumer can relate to and become.

Not fully realizing that they are actually becoming full-blown consumers tied to funding and growing a fast fashion, unsustainable, and highly unethical mega brand. This is why I culture jammed this very ad to highlight that identifying yourself with a brand based on your desire, actually does not make you American-made. I switched the words around to say "Made.. Into mass consumers" showing the negative consumer culture of that brand's fast fashion persona. Supporting that I added a line asserting " Being American Made truly means supporting America's fast fashion and exploitation norms". This can lead the audience to question whether or not their actions are benefiting or effecting themselves, the brand, or the global industries' exploitative actions.

References:

Spellings, S. (2017, August 10). American apparel is back, but not everything is made in the USA. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/american-apparel-is-back-but-not-everything-is-made-in-usa.html

Referring to the theory of a "panoptic society", I believe that we do live in a world where we are constantly being watched. Relating to the social media example I believe that social media is a reversed pantopic, where instead of one person watching everyone, everyone watches everyone, everyone watches your move. Whenever I post on Instagram hundreds of individuals are able to take an inside look at my life, see where I am, and what I am experiencing. They have access to my name, my identity, my relations with others, and in a way my personality based on the photos I am showing through the media. My TikTok feed is filtered to meet my interests through tracking hashtags, likes, and comments. This app can cater to me and plate me with media that they know I will have an interest in every single time I open the app. My parents can track my very location just by the touch of their fingers through the Life 360 App, being able to ensure I foster an accepted location. Media gives us control, control over who we see and how we view them, without any control in how we want to be seen.

Looking in a Canadian context, we can draw back a long historical line of evolvance of media policies. Our country has many diverse populations and a large topographical aesthetic, and we live beside our sistering nations. These are all given and proven aspects that over history have had to protect and ensure the preservation of. Our media policies as a nation have to protect our national and individual needs to foster an open ear to hear our voices. People want their voices heard, they want their needs met, and overall to protect their national identity. Media policy in Canada not only needs to let the individuals be heard within the nation but outside of the nation as well with a hand-in-hand grasp on the mediascape ( Gasher et al, 2020, pp. 175)

So how do the people get a say on our policies birth? This is where the formation of Royal Commissions comes into play. These commissions are enforced to inquire and rebuild upon the amount of concern being stressed and to protect the Canadian Identity. These media policies help to resolve public issues within the nation. More specifically the Aird Commission of 1929 was created to evaluate and develop policies based on Canadian Broadcasting, and what effects (negative) it was having on the building of the nation's identity and who it was run by, and how to revert that domination and promote Canadian culture (Thrift, 2023, Media Policy Pt 1, pp 13-14).

References:

Thrift, 2023, Coms 201 Media Studies, Media Policy

Pt 1, pp 13-14

Gasher, M., Skinner, D., & Coulter, N. (2020a). Media and Communication in Canada: Networks, Culture, Technology, Audiences.

I started to develop some more personal analytical questions based on my news-consuming activity:

• "Is this really where I am going to be drawing my knowledge and the basis of global understanding?"

• "Is this newsworthy story just grabbing me with an unauthentic persona?"

• "Is my social media realistically informing me, or wrongfully persuading me?"

• "What perspectives have I now developed after watching or seeing this news displayed in the media and should the media's bias create my bias?"

Assessing the main forms of "knowledge" and "insightfulness" I gain from different media sources, I started to question if I have been getting fed a trustworthy spoonful. My main activity comes from my TikTok feed, which is highly questionable. But when being sucked down in that whole loophole, it is hard for the audience member to realize and question the credibility of the information I am getting injected. The big headlines, scandalous rumours, and highly political and social perspectives are being forced at me left right and center just on my feed can easily persuade the viewer. Did that celebrity actually do that? Am I siding with the right political party? All the way into the cancel culture normalities of having someone decide whether or not to side with someone based on non-concise rumours and information are all factors that lead me to conclude that I am not being subjected to a credible news source.

I not only discovered the historical ties that mend together communication and how it operates in this very day and age, but I got to see the intricate logic and reasoning behind it. I got to learn about the people who first discovered this lifelong essential social interaction of sharing ideas and knowledge, the action of communicating. And how they formed different ideas of the effects it plays upon us without even knowing at times. Exploring how communication helped form the country I live in, and how I as a Canadian operate in the media. I explored the reasons behind meaning-making in media formats, and how brands develop their own identity. I even got to see the actions people in my society take when disagreeing with certain mass media companies' outreach, and how they subvert their messages promoted to the consumers. Being a consumer, this truly opened my eyes to the realm of buying into companies for a self-image. All those times I have scrolled on TikTok and been influenced to buy a certain item, just to feed into that audience commodity of gaining a certain "new" image of myself. All those hours I have spent scrolling through Instagram, comparing myself to others based on their materialistic identities and items that are tied to a certain brand name. I am watching others, and they are watching me through a digital world. I was confused at first thinking about this, but made me start to question what information serves to me, and what information blindly manipulates me. Learning more about this concept throughout the course my understanding cleared and helped me develop a new outlook on how much I take in and put out into the mass media world

All these self-reflections and learnings made me develop an insightful approach to the concept that communication is so much larger than what one conceptualizes it to be. It is what ties me to my community, nation, and world around me. Communicating aids me in sharing my ideas not just face to face, but technologically just through the touch of my fingers. I am exposed to it when I am walking to school with my earbuds in, listening to my favourite music and artists. When I am sitting down and learning mind-blowing information in my lectures, communication is the bridge of understanding. When I am ordering my daily coffee, communicate all the details of my specific order whilst debating whether or not I should get the company's new specialty coffee that just got promoted on the store's screens. It even is with me when I am laying in my bed texting my friends, scrolling on my socials, and debating what to post through my technological device. Communication is everywhere, it is everything and is what makes up the world we as human beings live in.