In a culture enthralled by the use of technology, it is important to note the ever-changing landscape of the media. Due to the pervasiveness of the media in today’s culture, it is vital to understand how media messages influences individuals. Media literacy is defined as the process of interacting with media content and critically analyzing it by considering its particular presentation, its underlying political or social messages, and the ownership and regulation issues that may affect what is presented and in what form (Pavlik 37). Media literacy is part of an ongoing process with no end goal in sight, so constant efforts to understand the media needs to be made. Consumers of media need to question the content they see and be critical of mediated communication as a whole. Although today’s complex media environment is overbearing, and striving to comprehend the factors allowing us to find meaning in media messages is essential. What factors allow consumers of media to understand media messages the way they do? By paying close attention to the history of media, the presentation of media, the political and social implications of messages, and being aware of regulation issues, society can take several steps forward to understanding the meaning of media messages and how to interact with media. Examining the history of media is the first step to understanding how people understand how “the medium is the message.” This is a quote from a noted communication scholar by the name of Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan claims that reading printed words has altered the way that people think and perceive the world around them (Pavlik 72). The presentation of material is important, because it affects how people understand that form of media co... ... middle of paper ... ...McLuhan stated, “The medium is the message,” and when readers look at certain media formats this can be discovered along with an understanding of underlying messages. Companies consolidate and when this happens regulation and deregulation may be imposed that affects the messages they produce. Media literacy encompasses all of these factors and each are just as important to understand how the media is designed. An example of this is Gmail. Everything on Gmail was designed with certain messages in mind, and users have to know who owns the service and why they chose to layout their site in that manner. Making the constant effort to improve upon media literacy leads to a better understanding of the media and its messages. Works Cited Pavlik, John V., and Shawn McIntosh. Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
Media, the plural form of medium, describes various ways in which we communicate in society. A phone call, email, radio, computer, news on TV, etc. are all forms of media. In our society today, the media plays a significantly large role in influencing society negatively, twisting one’s perspective of the truth. In author Brooke Gladstone’s, The Influencing Machine, she discusses how media is looked at as an “influencing machine,” that’s controlling the mind of its viewers. Throughout the reading, Gladstone guides her readers through perceptions of media and how it influences them to get readers to understand the truth about media and the manipulation behind it.
Newspaper, radio, film, television. These are only a few of the various forms media can take. From the moment we open our eyes to the instant we shut them, we are surrounded by media and absorb the information it hurls at us in an osmosis-like manner. The news ranges from the latest terror attack and political scandals to supposed UFO sightings and scandals involving sandals. We as an audience tend to focus more on the message the media relays rather than on the medium in which it is presented to us. “What?” is asked more than “How?” The key claim Marshall McLuhan makes in his book, The Medium is the Massage, is that the form of media influences how the message is perceived. Let’s illustrate this with a scenario: it’s eight o’clock in the morning.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communication Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadworth/Tompson Learning.
David. "Mass Media and the Loss of Individuality." Web log post. Gatlog. N.p., 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.
According to Ministry of Education’s Resource Book “Media literacy is one of the few instruments that enables teachers and students to challenge the great inequalities in knowledge and power that exist between those who manufacture information in their own interests and those who consume it innocently as news or entertainment.” Media literacy is a course to help students separate fantasy from reality in the media. Media literacy is a set of skills that enables people to critically analyze messages in the media. By using an inquiry-based instructional model, media literacy encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see, and read.
Media or medium of communication has been conceptualized to effect and drive information to the greater masses because it’s the venue where information can be linear form of communication. This essay will discuss what it is meant by media according to online Business Dictionary defines as the communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated.” This may include broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet, the Business Dictionary further includes in this definition.
In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, he proposed that we focus on the way each medium changes cultures and traditions and reshapes social life, rather than the content. He describes the content of the medium as a “juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” (McLuhan, 32). To him, focusing on the medium was important because he believed that different types of media change the balance of our senses. We start isolating and highlighting different senses.
McLuhan’s work with literature and culture produced the revolutionary thought that “the medium is the message.” In other words, cultures are changed not only by the “content” of technology, but also by the technology itself.
“The medium is the message,” uttered by the late media scholar and theorist Marshall McLuhan, and they have been revered and dissected ever since they were spoken. There has been several different interpretations on the premise of McLuhan’s words, and the meaning behind them. The best way to start unraveling his theory, is to get a general understanding of the terms used in his famous quote. In McLuhan’s own words, a medium is simply “an extension of ourselves.” Simply put the medium personifies or enhances what we as humans cannot do on our own. In a mass media perspective this means the use of technology including radio, television, and the Internet to project our thoughts, feelings, and senses (Frederman) . Finally, it is important to note that the plural of the word medium is media. Now that there is a general understanding of the medium, the other important word McLuhan spoke of is the “message”. The message is simply what the audience perceives through the medium. This could be anything from watching a television program or listening to the radio. Also, note that some believe the message McLuhan preached is a lot more complicated and not obvious. This view can be explained by, the message isn’t the news, but the attitudes that are affected by watching or listening to the message. Whichever, definition is taken for the “message”, the dissection of McLuhan’s quote will still be interpreted in a similar fashion.
In fact, most media content are no longer merely artistic and informational – they are meant to engage the masses thus to exert profound influence not only on individual development but also on social advancement. No one can deny that in the contemporary world, media, composed of dynamic and various platforms, is widely perceived to be the predominant means of communication. Noticeably, the term media is first used with the advent of newspaper and magazines; yet with the passage of time, the term is broadened by the inventions of radio, television, video and internet, which are all adapted as forms of media that bring the world closer to us. Indeed, media depends on its wild audience coverage, active public engagement and open, two-way communication to create a highly interactive platform through which “humanity, fully connected, collaboratively build and share a global world”(McLuhan 160).Without doubt, media presents a strong impact upon individual and society in the proc...
Media has grown drastically over the last 100 years, and we have become accustomed to it being a part of our everyday lives. Media is such an influential part of our society that we forget that not all media is created equally. Media has become so widespread that we might be oblivious to the messages right in front of our faces. Media such as television, newspaper, radio, Internet, social media, and billboards have created an information epidemic that has the ability to influence a person’s thoughts and ideas. Media literacy is a tool that allows people to take information and evaluate it so they can form their own thoughts and ideas about the information presented to them. Media literacy allows people to decipher information that is opinionated,
If one asked “What is media literacy?” a majority of people would be puzzled. Some would say that it is the ‘written’ part of media that is not usually seen or a written layout of how media should be produced. The bulk of people would say they have no idea what media literacy is. People in today’s society should be informed about media literacy. Society should be informed of what media literacy exactly is and how it applies to the field of communications.
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.
Media technologies are becoming an important aspect of today’s society. Each and every day, people interact with media of many different forms. Media is commonly defined as being a channel of communication. Radio, newspapers, and television are all examples of media. It is impossible to assume that media is made up of completely unbiased information and that the media companies do not impose their own control upon the information being supplied to media users. Since many people use media very frequently, it is obvious to assume that it has affects on people. According to the text book Media Now, "media effects are changes in knowledge, attitude, or behavior that result from exposure to the mass media," (386). This leaves us with many unanswered questions about media and its influences. This paper will look at how the effects of media are determined and explore the main affects on today’s society - violence, prejudice, and sexual behavior.