Saturday, November 21, 2009
Interesting Concept
One thing I found interesting in Chapter 11 (although it is broad) is the whole concept of mass media. Mass media is an extremely powerful tool that almost anybody can gain access to. The three things that are unique about mass media as the book states are that it comes from profit-oriented organizations rather than a single individual, the receivers are anonymous and dispersed in time and space and this form of communication requires specialized encoding/decoding technologies (Pg. 299). Mass media can reach hundreds of millions of people anywhere in the world, which can be a scary concept to think about. The media itself is a powerful tool to change or enforce others’ opinions into what the media wants people to think. The media tells us how to act, what to think, how to dress and how to be beautiful. Although none of these ‘rules’ set by the media are accurate, they are followed by the majority and those who choose not to are looked at as outsiders
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CrushedVelvet23,
ReplyDeleteThis tends to be a hot topic of discussion for this chapter as I too wrote on media communication. I think you brought up some interesting points in terms of media communication. You're right, millions of people all around the world can be reached through mass media. It's a scary concept when you consider the sender delivering the contexts and the receivers in relation to their cultural background. These contexts can be interpreted by each person's cultural background. That's why I believe it's extremely important those mass media companies communicate effectively because of the impact it has on millions of people all around the world. It's also important we don't let the mass media dictate how we behave or act. An open mind is an intelligent mind in my opinion.