mediasociety4: Digital Media Within Society Week 2

This weeks DMWS lecture focused on the Mass Media...
by Barry McCaffrey B00035922

The Influence of Mass Media
Mass media is Communication over many different forms such as written, spoken, broadcasted which reaches a large audience. We now have traditional as well as modern/new forms of media.

Traditional Media
Television, Radio, Newspapers, Advertising, Movies, Magazines, Music Cds.

Modern/New Media
Internet, Digital Television, 3D/HD Television, Video On Demand, WAP Based Technology.

Diversity of Mass Media

Media Organisations: Is the goal purely for profit or is it informative?

Media Games: Online Games e.g. MMORPGS such as World of Warcraft, Second Life.

Media Games Platforms: Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Origin, Steam, Browser based games.

Media Genres: News, Soaps, Movies, Music, Sport, Games, Fashion, Reality, Documentarys.

Media Texts: media products such as a TV Program, books, posters, songs, music videos, movies, newspapers, magazines, blogs, forums, websites, social networks, RSS Feeds etc.

Media Audiences:
Active or Passive? Age? Culture? Religion? Language?

Affects of Mass Media

Significant force in modern culture that effects us from a very young age.

Mediated Culture - Where Media Reflects and creates Culture

Mass media has a direct affect on our culture where the attitudes of our society are influenced by messages delivered through the mass media channels. Mass media and advertising affect our actions, thoughts, and values. We are at the point where mass media creates and reflects our culture–a mediated culture.

E.G Advertising influences and controls what we buy through popular and regular branding & awareness (Coke, McDonalds, Fashion labels, Toys for children, Technology for everybody)

Celebrity Culture

Celebrity culture is the culture of popularizing certain people with attributes that society deem exceptional. People sometimes attempt at becoming famous by various means such as entering reality TV, try to become famous through YouTube or dating someone with a high status.

With constant media exposure, they become role models for adolescents and teenagers. Interest in celebrities creates, a business with celebrities worth billions. Quite often this has raised issues, many controversial with negative impacts on our society. The appeal of drug and alcohol abuse has increased due to images of intoxicated celebrities spread across today’s various forms of media such as tv, advertising, movies, magazines and internet etc.

The media are able to control what our children see and because of this many very young children have stopped behaving like children. Sex and sexual clothing and attitudes is now common place targeting young children through magazines, music videos, songs and even movies. E.G Kids want to behave like their role-model celebrities and have sex at a younger age as well as dress inappropriate. The media has portrayed sex, drugs, alcohol as cool, this celebrity culture has become a highly profitable business and as long as society continues to take notice and make decisions based on it, this will continue for a very long time to come.

Defining Mass Media

Mass media consists of the various means by which information reaches large numbers of people, such as television, radio, movies, newspapers, and the Internet. Mass media can effect people's values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviour.

The mass media is often controlled, it tells us what they want us to hear, see, read and influence. This is achieved through the various news and information channels across the world where much of the information is controlled by a few individuals who have significant power.

It effects many of our decisions in life such as what we should buy, how we should behave.

Conceptualizing The Mass Media

The roles of Mass Media in everyday life

means of communication between 'senders' e.g. tv stations, newspapers, producers and the 'receivers' e.g. us 'the audience'.
To reflect and create culture 'mediated culture'.
Create industries or companies e.g. fox news, Canal+, Sky, News International
media as commodities and cultural products.
Agents of social change and globalization.
Agents of socialization and sources of social meaning.

Roger Silverstone states that media are:
A constant presence in our everyday lives, as we switch in and out, on
and off, from one media space, one media connection, to another. From
Radio, to newspaper, to telephone. From television, to hi-fi, to internet. In
Public and in private, alone and with others….