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Media System Dependency Theory Essay

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Media system dependency is a theory that predicts people in society will use media for interpersonal needs and goals. It is researched as a system that allows people to meet these goals through sources of information found in different media forms (Loges & Ball-Rokeach, 1993). While media does help us understand who we are, and possibly what we may be becoming, it can also give us insight to the outside world. Media gives the consumer what is desired, and often that is the intense, hostile, and sometimes hopeless views of the world around us. For example, we watch the news and believe that a particular place isn’t safe because that is what media portrays. With all of these notions media gives us, and our dependency on …show more content…

Since 9/11, every year on the television news, radio, and in the paper, the contents are filled with flashbacks, old pictures, and memories that occur on the anniversary of 9/11. Since this particular event is still talked about and viewed on media sources every year, we feel that it is important to incorporate it into the media system dependency theory. The reason being, it will allow us to start determining how Americans get their information today, and if it is in relationship to how they found out and viewed the events of 9/11.
Objectives
For this study, we will hypothesize based on previous research done; media dependency has increased among American’s since the events of 9/11. We believe that this is important to study because 9/11 was such a substantial event to American’s all across the country, not just in New York. The idea that media was the only connection to information on the events occurring. Radio stations stopped their shows to announce the tragedies, and newspaper press wrote stories that were published the next day. People, who were already tuned into a particular media, would know right away. As researchers we assume that events of 9/11 have increased media consumption among Americans. Therefore, we want to discover if are people genuinely more concerned with media information and have started tuning into media more frequently since 9/11?
Mass media and the dependency on media influence how events are perceived. It also displays

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