Effects Of Mass Media
Matthew Kelly
HUM/186
July 29, 2013
Krystal Holthus

Effects Of Mass Media

Mass media that surrounds our everyday lives, without a doubt has a large impact on our culture and way of life. The spectacular phenomenon of mass media has shaped and influenced our culture, by the process of evolutionary major developments and convergence. The media shapes and impacts our culture by providing large amounts of information through various channels of technology. Every day, people come in contact with some form of technology and there for become exposed to media and information, which easily influences their choices or ideas.

Developments

Over the last century, our world has quickly evolved and improved with various advancements in technology. Mass media quickly evolved by channeling information through these technological advancements. With the invention of the radio everyone began to easily have access to live and recorded music, news, and advertisements. The radio enabled people to quickly distribute and carry information over great distances. However, the radio only delivered audio information which left an opening for the television. The television was an excellent advancement for mass media, giving the audience visual as well as audio information. With colors and moving pictures the media evolved like never before. Now days with the majority of homes having at least one television, families all over the world have access to 24 hour news channels, movies, shows, and massive amounts of advertisements. Another major development in the evolution of mass media came the birth of the internet. The internet provides information throughout the world with satellites, providing information access to numerous devices such as cell phones. With these inventions and many others, mass media to no surprise has expediently evolved and constantly surrounds people with information. Being surrounded with constant information and advertisements directly influences and persuades American culture daily.

Influence

The inventions and developments directly influences American culture by mass media constantly surrounding people every day. In order to not be influenced by mass media, an individual would have to stay in a room without a cell phone, television, computer, or radio. The simplest form of mass media influence is advertisement. Advertisements are a proven method for companies to show off and persuade potential customers to use or buy their products. For example, after dinner one evening with my wife at home, we decided to spend the evening watching a favored television show. During the show of course are commercials and soon an advertisement for a Dairy Queen fudge brownie ice cream treat was all over the screen of our television. Needless to say this greatly influenced our decision to get in the car and drive to Dairy Queen right at that moment. However, if we were not exposed to mass media through our television, we most likely would not have even thought of purchasing a Dairy Queen ice cream that night. This of course, is one of many affective methods mass media has utilized modern technology to influence the American culture.

Media Convergence

Media convergence is simply the combination of technologies into one single source. The internet is in my opinion, the best form of media