Mass Media Paper

Jessica Jane Tomlinson Hum/186 Jan/24/2012

Mass Media

Why do we dress the way we do, watch what we watch or even live the way we do? Through our means of entertainment, it is almost a guide in how one should live their life. We are persuaded to believe what is right and what is wrong. Although we create our own world, our thoughts were imposed upon us since the day we are born. We see images on the television and we will do anything to look like that certain someone. In society, our influences on one another have gone beyond ideas for simple living. Instead of helping us live more efficient and healthy lives, the media almost makes our decisions for us about our own personal preferences. It’s great that we have such a variety of choices, some ideals in our culture are pressed upon us so heavily and are sometimes even demanded of us that they could leave us with no choice at all.
Mass media is forms of communication that is written, broadcast, or spoken- that reaches a large audience. This includes radio, advertising, movies, the internet, newspapers, magazines, and so forth. Mass media is what affects our society's perception of ourselves and others and influences the structures of our society as well as the reactions of the individual. Americans perceive the political, economic, class, educational, and other structures of American society because of the media. The American understanding of these structures within its society as well as those structures outside of the United States are manipulated and directed by the media. The media influences the perceptions of individuals within American society by what and how the media is communicating
Mass media plays a predominant role in todays’ society and has continued to change over the years. The first step forward for the last century was in the 1920’s with the blossom of radio and film. The signals were weak and the movies made were silent but through the coming years improvements came and around the 1950’s the age of television was born. In the beginning the television was big, bulky, and colorless. Throughout the years the television has evolved into a necessity for everyday living with the oncoming of cable television. In 1982 the introduction of the internet came way and changed lives forever. Cable television and the internet boomed quickly and became a common practice for many to obtain everyday information. The internet now is making it more and easier to fulfill our everyday desires, such as talking to friends, reading about news and stories from across the world, and even reading books and watching T.V. The television and internet are still rapidly growing and soon enough will consume the printed word entirely and make them obsolete, such as books, magazines, and newspapers. Though these inventions were massively flawed at first evolution has transcended all of these to become a vital base to modern living and society.
Media convergence is a term used to describe the transcendence or conversion of modern media and technology together. Content that was only available in magazines and newspapers, movies songs and in television shows is now available on the internet. Oral communications such as talking on the telephone and speaking in person are now being replaced by text message, email, and social media. With the conversions of mass media being rolled up into one it is now common practice for companies to offer phone service, cable, and internet into packages. This will assure companies steady clients and profit by bundling necessities together. The internet is now the leading source of media convergence and could soon eliminate many older sources of entertainment and news such as television, newspapers and magazines.
The ways of the modern world we live in are changing and will continue to evolve. One thing that will be alongside the changes as they have been from the turn of the century of media is advertisements. Advertisements have helped to pay for websites, television, magazines, newspapers, and radio stations to keep running by soliciting on these forms of entertainment. Advertisement is an essential source for many free outlets to make some revenue and continue running.
With the evolution of media formats comes the change of understanding on how to obtain, read, and use the information at hand, this is called media literacy. Media literacy is important for people to express themselves on the fronts of technology and for companies and correspondents to get ideas and messages out. The biggest form for this is the internet now, many people who exercise views and opinions turn to writing blogs or doing podcast on sites such as YouTube or twitter. Media literacy by networks and companies is used to control what the viewer will see and to make the messages easier to understand. This could be good or bad because these suppliers of information get to choose what they do or don’t release. Throughout the centuries media has evolved and will continue to for generations to come, it’s a marvel to see what the next form of communication will be.