I thought the idea of mediation and the influences that media has on us was very eye-opening. The first example that came into my mind when the book mentioned how media shapes the way we view other countries and cultures that we have never visited or experienced. I have never been to the Middle East, but the media depicts it as a constant war zone. It has always seemed to me, with the influence of the media, that the culture was bizarre and treated women poorly. However, now that I think about it, I can't really, truly know any of that unless I experience it first hand. Those are actually assumptions I have made based upon the news and media. It all relates back to rule number one: in theory, everything is suspect. You cannot rely on the media or prior assumptions for a definite truth, everything must be taken lightly because we cannot truly know if our media sources are reliable.
I thought the term mediation was interesting. It was not something that I had ever spent too much time thinking about, but I can't deny that all media is processed by me even if I don't realize it. For example, I have never been to half the locations that I have seen in movies or on TV, but I still feel like I have a general idea of those locations because I have processed information through mediation. Likewise, through reading I have been exposed to many outside thoughts and opinions and my mind has processed them even though I am not aware that I am doing it. That is why I found this particular idea interesting to me.
