Term Paper

The world is surrounded by media through advertisements, branding, news, magazines etc. Television is a huge source of media where we as the audience interpret how the world goes on. As digital natives, people who were brought up with advanced technology, television is a norm but the way it is read is unique to each and every person. Media literacy has developed and has become much sharper in today’s day and age with the audience becoming much more aware to what the message. It is important to be media literate particularly for a program such as ‘Criminal Minds’ that changes the audience’s perceptions throughout the episode questioning whom is the culprit of the crime that has been committed. This specific program has many connotations to it, both negative and positive. Sometimes television is taken too lightly and sometimes it is taken too seriously from the audience, this can be problematic. In this paper I will discuss the media effects on myself and the general audience and how they incorporate media theories such as Todorov’s narrative structure and the Uses and Gratification theory.