Journal prompt 4

Objectives: To have students understand how the media plays a role in the agenda of the market. 

Read the NY Times article titled “How Companies Learn Your Secrets” (February 16, 2012; available at

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shoppinghabits.html?pagewanted=6&_r=2&hp

). Once you have read this article, watch the film, Consuming Kids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMaRsR7orTk

(This film is 1 hour long). 

Once you read the article and watch the film, answer these questions in your journal prompt

1. How have cultivation and agenda setting changed now that digital users make their interests available to media producers? 
2. How has big data changed our assumptions about the agenda? What might it mean that users cultivate their own messages?
3. What current day examples do we see at play when thinking about cultivation theory and agenda-setting?