A Mediated Culture Analysis

Mediated Culture: A look into the way media affects us

Media is one of the most powerful tools that a communicator can have. Media can build up empires and also tear them down. It has proven to society time and time again that its power is untamable, as well as unpredictable. It shapes who we are personally and it shapes everyone around us. In order for one to truly understand the concept of media integrated into our culture, we have to first discern what media is, the elements inside of media, and finally how media connects to us and our culture as well as how it shapes it and our responsibility in utilizing this power.

As active members of society, we are constantly bombarded with loads of information everyday. Statista, an online statistic

provider, concluded by survey that we spend about 12 hours a day with major media (2015). In the book Communication, by John T. Warren and Deanna L. Fassett, Warren and Fassett (2015) describe our daily interaction with media to be as if we are “Like Fish immersed in water, we constantly swim through media” (p. 211). Interacting with one type of communication like media might seem not true, but when taken into consideration what media is, it is easy to understand why we come in contact with so much of it. In the Oxford dictionary, media is defined as “the main means of mass communication” (n.d.). If you are unfamiliar with mass communication; In an article entitled “What Is Mass Communication”, Shawn Grimsley defines mass communication to be “a process in which a person, group of people, or an organization sends a message through a channel of communication to a large group of anonymous and heterogeneous people and organizations” (Grimsley, 2015). In similar terms, mass communication is getting a message across to a wide variety of people, usually targeting a specific group of people. Therefore, we can conclude that media is the main way society uses to get messages across from one person or group, to another group. Things such as TV, Newspapers, books, and phones all contain media in them, such as advertisements, messages, and information such as news. Now that media has been defined and examples of is have been given, the idea that we are immersed in it is very comprehendible. Not only is the concept of media important to understand, but so is the elements that media uses to get a message across.
In Media, there are many important factors to a medium witch allows the message to get across to an audience affectively. It is essential to learn these factors in order to utilize them when using media. An important factor in media is the representation, this will often define the visual aspect of a medium. Warren and Fassett (2014) define a representation as “a replica or mirror or reflection of something already there/occurred” (p.217). This could be anything that represents a moment in time as well, for example, if someone is watching the news, then the news itself is a representation of a what is going on in another place at a given time. TV is the medium and it always uses representation to get the addressers’ message across to the addressee.
Another term to be familiar with is mode of address, in an online article entitled “Semiotics for beginners”, the author, Daniel Chandler defines the term mode of address as “the ways in which relations between addresser and addressee and constructed though text” (2014).

When coming up with a mode of address, it is a process that will define how the message will get across to an audience. Modes of addresses are often defined by target audiences. For example, if media was being made to get a message about buying a nice car to the upper class, the mode of address would probably include adequate language about specifications and benefits, also this particular mode of address would probably be included in a magazine that the upper class tends to buy. This relationship between the person creating the media and the person consuming the media is included in the mode of address. Warren and Fassett also describe how this relationship also works in reverse, not only is the addresser shaping the advertisement to conform to the wants and needs of the addressee, but the addressee (in this case the upper class) is conforming to the expectations of the addresser. This is partially what shapes the product that we buy, and in turn, who we are as an individual. Another term that ties closely to this idea is co-constitution, Warren and Fassett (2010) define co-constitution as the idea that “we use and create media even as media use and create us” (p.212). This idea is important to know when

tying media with our culture. Now that media is properly defined, along with the components of media, its important to know the affect that media has on people as individuals, this will help the understanding of the tie between media and culture.
Its been established that media is main method of mass communication.

This means when someone puts a message into media, it has more of an effect on society because the message reaches out to mass target audiences, rather than one on one communication. Everyone can interpret a message differently, so we use tools like representation to make sure the point is across clearly. When the point gets across clearly is when a real affect happens in our culture, media is a tool that could be used to bring people together, or tear them apart, creating a cultural impact on how we see certain groups or people or even how we think all together. It can establish a mythical norm, or it can attempt to break barriers of what is known to be “normal”. But in order to achieve all of this one has to understand how it makes an affect on an individual. In the book “understanding popular culture” (2010) the author, John Fiske, concludes that culture is something that is a process taking place, and that it is something that is never really fixed and set. This means that it is very malleable and easily changed, it might not seem that way to one individual, but with a tool such as media, it is possible. For example, in a personal experience, in 2012 one man named Jason Russell found an issue that he was passionate about, he used many different forms of media to get a message across to the public; the message was what was kids were being forced to join an African militia and kill people, and society

needed to do something about it to stop it. Jason made a short film to show the public what was wrong, the short film is the first piece of media he used, but then he used social media such as Facebook and twitter to grab a larger target audience for his cause. When I first viewed this media it got my attention and I passed on the message by sharing the video with friends. The total outcome was that millions of people in the USA were all worried about kids across the world in Africa, it changed the way that our society thought about what was going on in Africa. The impact that it had on American culture for a short period of time was that when people would hear the word “Kony”, they would stop and think about the kids that it was affecting, and in turn, action was taken to help stop the African militia. A lot of time media will bring a spotlight upon something in our way of life or culture that we need to change or a specific group would like to change.
In the “Kony 2012” example, it was not just the mere fact that he made a viral video on social media to make society think about the issue and act upon it. Jason was not a very famous person before this video, but when he shared the video, it created somewhat of a chain reaction that triggered the temporary change in culture. This chain reaction started with just a few individuals that the medium touched. What the medium (video) did, was it changed the way that they thought of the problem, it made them more passionate about it and they shared the video along with there own opinions about it. This happened to me and it happened to millions of Americans. Another example of how media affects our individuality, and in turn our culture, is the simple concept of a music video for a very popular song. First, the video reaches the general when it is published because when people hear a popular song that they like, they might want to watch the video for it. When one watches the video for this song, it could be glorifying the way the artist or group acts as well as dresses. Since the author of the song is popular, as well as the song, it can create an impression among individuals. The impression could be that the way the people in the video are acting is good and popular. So this could change the way the individual thinks about a specific style of clothing, or the way that they act. The individual could start acting and dressing like the person in the video. Once this happens to one person, the same might happen for the millions of people that watch the video. When all these people start dressing and acting a certain way they are conveying the message that this new style is the “mythical norm” and others start to follow, a bandwagon effect happens. Throughout this process this music video has integrated itself into culture. For some people, this medium has become there was of life, how they walk, talk, act, and dress could all change because they were influenced by this medium. This is a great example of how media helps us form opinions about certain subjects and influences us and out culture.
In conclusion, media is one of the most important tools that a communicator.