My Most Memorable Media Experience

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Media Studies Assignment 2

One of the most significant media experiences for me happened before the widespread use of Internet and interactive media, the Monica Lewinsky Scandal. As a 9 year old, the content of this story of course went over my head, but interestingly I feel like I knew every detail. The scandal was pervasive in every level of communication. On the intrapersonal level was I trying to comprehend what the fuss was about. Interpersonally discussion was rampant among my 9-year-old classmates who were blatantly as ignorant of the president’s actual transgressions as I. In group communication, relatives, friends of the family and my parents incessantly divulged new details and gossiped at the dinner table. Most importantly, the story pervaded every TV and newspaper from my living room, to the barbershop, to the waiting room of my pediatrician.

The story seemed to transcend the opposition of special interest groups, like parents concerned for the content their children were being exposed to and political groups wanting to suppress the story for their party’s reputation. Chapter 3 in Hanson states that “nothing can make audience members pay attention to media content”, but I believe this story is a distinct contradiction of this claim. Nothing short of sever sensory harm could prevent every American from learning about this story.

Significant in this episode of modern media history is media literacy, especially regarding the cognitive, emotional, and moral dimensions. Because I was a child at the time I can’t say that I was truly able to process the information that was assaulting me everywhere I went. From the tone of adults, I could tell that Clinton did something wrong, and that his behavior was condemnable, even though the nature of his actions and the reason for their resulting castigations remained unknown to me. I think this highlights the interrelationship of the dimensions of media literacy that through the people around me’s emotional and moral reaction to the scandal I gained a basic cognitive understanding of the story.