The Power of Media

   
This semester I am enrolled in a Mass Communications course. Although we have only had a couple of weeks of class, I have already learned and realized a lot about the media and how much power it has in society. The media is constantly creating fads telling us what things we should wear, who we should listen to, and even what we should eat. As an Agriculture major, of course my thoughts turned immediately to the recent surge in interest of foods with some of these now commonly seen labels:

Labels like these are not new to the grocery store shelves, but they are becoming more common because consumers are suddenly looking for these labels on the food they choose to buy. So what is behind this change in consumer's outlook on food products? Largely, I would say it is the media.

How often to you see a story on the news or on the internet about farming and what practices you should support when buying products at a grocery store? Agriculture has become the target of many organizations that have worked hard to shed a negative light on the industry in order to sway the public's opinion. We are seeing these labels more and more because the people selling that product know that the consumer is more likely to choose their product if a certain label is on it. What people don't realize is that these new labels don't necessarily mean that the producers have changed their production methods, it could simply be that they have decided to advertise the methods that they were already using.

I just found it interesting that the media has played such a huge role in the consumer's personal opinion and what decisions they make at the grocery store. One thing I would like to add is that as a consumer, you should not only be aware of why these labels are on the product, but what exactly they mean. Look into FDA regulations and what specific criteria a producer has to meet in order to have a certain label on their product. I think you will be suprised to find that labels don't always meet all of the criteria that you might assume.
Click here to read my blog about understanding food labels: Natural vs Organic: Know Your Labels