This post is about the project “The Medium is the Message.” I’m going to talk about what I learned, and include evidence of my learning. The driving question was “how does what we hear, read and see influence us?” As you might be able to tell from the name of the project, it was about the media and how it influences us. The goal of the project was to give us a wider perspective on the world around us, specifically through media and the ads we see.

In this post I’m going to show three pieces of evidence of my learning through this project. My first piece of evidence will be my individual ad. The individual ad taught me about what’s appealing to the eye and how to tell a story through an ad. The second piece of evidence I will be showcasing will be my group ad. My group ad taught me about how what you say and the format of how you say it can change how people look at things. The last thing I will show will be my advertising photo journal.

This is my individual ad. The first photo is the original draft, and the second one is what it looked like after receiving critique. As you can see, it developed a lot. During this milestone, I learned how to use the app “Canva.” I enjoyed this milestone because I was able to make something that was completely my own.

This is my group ad. In this milestone I learned more about collaboration and what’s appealing to the eye. In this milestone, we talked to ad consultant Derek Hepburn and took critique about our ad.
This milestone, my group completely collaborated on it. We all worked together and created something new and better. As you can see, I’ve included a picture of our original group ad and our ad after receiving feedback from Mr. Hepburn. We improved a lot. I enjoyed this milestone because I got to work with my peers and receive feedback from a professional.

The last piece of evidence I’m going to talk about will be my advertising photo journal. In this milestone I learned about the ads I see every day. I usually don’t pay full attention to them, but they still worm themselves into my brain sometimes, making themselves a spot and living rent-free in my head for a while.
I reflected on each of the ads I saw, and talked about the advertising techniques. I liked this assignment because I got to take photos of the ads I saw, allowing me to think about them more. The questions I answered about them allowed me to think about them even more.

I’m also including this slide show of my different ad drafts, with the last slide including my group ad. As you might be able to tell, a lot of progress was made!

So, we started off this post introducing the driving question. Now we must answer it. How does what we hear, see and read influence us? Well, a lot of the stuff we see around us is specifically made to stay in the minds of people of a similar demographic to me. An ad I see on the bus stop? It’s probably specifically made for people who ride the bus. An ad I see on Instagram? Made for Instagram users. An ad in a magazine? Made for readers of the magazine. When things like that are made for us, we remember them. We may not notice them, but they influence us. If you lived in a world with no ads, and no media in general, would you be different than you are now? The answer is definitely yes. Would you have your favourite product if it weren’t for the media? No, probably not. You may not realize it but what we hear, read and see creates who you are. The reason I own the iPad that I’m writing this with is because my mom heard about the program. You probably own the device that you’re reading this with. Why do you have that device? Because you heard about it, whether it be on a website or from a friend, or anywhere else. So, how does what we hear, see and read influence us? Well, it influences who we are, what we buy, and what we do.