Aiden Thieme

Jennifer Weeks

20594 ENG100L

23 January 2020

Is Media Changing How We Think? Discussion

Naeemah Clark - Does the media tell us who we should be?

Naeemah Clark begins with the retelling of the story about her mother putting brown

makeup on the mask of her Marie Osmond costume for halloween. She continues to delve further

into her childhood days of longing for long hair like Cher and how her interest in television

revealed that people that looked like her were not well represented or celebrated in the worlds

she was so fascinated in. Fast forwarding to the 1970’s, Naeemah talks about just how big of a

deal it was for her when the Cosby Show starting airing. She then reveals that this passion for

television led to her taking on a career in television studies. Moving on to share some

information with the audience; that media is powerful in the way that it “tells viewers who they

are” and who they want to be. And despite negative or nonexistent depictions of women of color

in television of the past, positive depictions of women of color are far more common in today’s

television landscapes. Recounting how shows like f.r.i.e.n.d.s. and Seinfeld (both taking place in

New York City) never featured any people of color (when there would most certainly be people

of those ethnicities in those environments) she debunks a statement in an article made by Nellie

Andreeva that says “colorblind auditioning for television is a thing of the past.” Naeemah points

out that we are both told who we are through television as well as told how other people are, and

points out that “television gives us insight into other people’s humanity.” Moving on to explain

the industry of television is one of “selling audience to advertisements” and that the most diverse
storytelling is seen on streaming platforms like netflix etc. that don’t run advertisements. She

then speaks to the power that we hold is not in the shows we watch, but how we use social media

to interact with those shows and their networks.

The statement that media tells us who we are and who we want to be holds very true.

Every day, people are bombarded with advertisements that will often promise to better ourselves

(whether that be in a way that we instinctively want to improve or not). We are told who we want

to be as well, and many people fall victim; as they may follow their desires to be like what they

see to a fault. There is a danger into putting a large trust in mass media as well, as it often depicts

a world that is very different from the one we actually live in. This can get in the way of how

people interact with each other, and be damaging to how our relationships. It is often difficult for

wide access television programs (like those on cable) to take risks in terms of what content goes

in their shows, for fear that it will drive away advertisers from those networks. This reason is

why Naeemah noted that streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime have a much wider

spectrum of content because they do not have the crutch of relying on advertisers to financially

support them.

I found this TEDx to be very interesting, as I have always been a bit of a fanatic of the

worlds of cinema, television, storytelling etc. so it was fun to get to listen to a presentation on a

topic I’m so passionate about. As someone who isn’t of color, I find it enlightening to hear the

perspectives of others, and how they experience different things in ways I would not.