The Candy Diet Analysis

Saunders criticizes the megaphone, claiming it places priority on entertaining, profitable news as opposed to news that is educational or enlightening. Saunders furthers this claim by arguing that news media is habitually over-simplifying complicated issues, thus desensitizing the masses to stupidity and frivolity. Saunders’ essay is important because although it was published in 2007, it is still relevant (and will most likely be relevant as long as media exists). In fact, the points he makes in this essay are even more relatable now, as social media has increased greatly in popularity. Everywhere you look, there is a new “breaking story” about the Kardashians or the Jenners; and people accept this as real news! Saunders’ essay encourages readers to be critical of mass media and seek out undiluted, uncontaminated, earnest news

“Media cannot attract audiences; only content has the power to attract and engage an audience…Without great content, media re transient and perishable…The media are nothing more than a transient pipeline.” (p. 27)

In his essay, Gibbon writes “[the media’s] central bias is toward bad news” (249). Gibbon’s stance, alongside Sternheimer, creates a compelling argument against the media, and how it negatively affects society. The media tosses boring positivity to the side, and lifts up negativity to a pedestal for all to see. With all the attention on the bad, the public struggles to see the good. Instead of providing a realistic view of society, the media paints a dark picture, one with little positivity.

Throughout America’s infantile years, the media solely consisted of the printing press, but as a result of industrialization, commercialization, and professionalization, it now extends into the world of technology, reaching far more Americans than ever before. Media can be defined as collective outlets for mass communication. In today’s society, massive amounts of media are consumed in a plethora of forms: newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, and social media. The 2007 U.S. Census Bureau 's Statistical Abstract of the United States reports that adults and teens spend nearly five months out the year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to music (cited in ABC News, 2006). In correspondence

Opening the book, Postman explains how he will fulfill showing that a “great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense” (pg. 16). There are two major points First: under the printing press, discourse In America was different from what it is now—generally coherent, serious, rational. Second: under the governance of television, it has become withered. This made me think about how much media affects us on a daily basis.

When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message” back in 1967, we were facing a very different society than we are today. His focus was of course on the mediums of the time: radio, newsprint and television. Mark Federman, a Chief Strategist for the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology asserts in his article, What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? (2004), McLuhan was not speaking directly about the medium itself. His thought process went to a deeper level. Federman “note[s] that it is not the content or use of innovation, but the change in inter-personal dynamics that the innovation brings with it” that is the issue. In a world that we can now access hundreds of thousands of bits of information in milliseconds, we can certainly see a shift in media influence. Today we can actually watch events as they unfold, whether they are events for a greater good or events of horrific acts of terrorism, technology has enabled society to be omnipresent. Melody Thompson (2011) refers to Jaron Lanier in discussing how technology shapes our relationship to itself. She notes that Lanier believes technology imposes on us its own viewpoint and that shapes our decisions. In a world where we live with a 24 hour news cycle and news stations that can skew their reporting to send the message they want their viewers to hear, it is quite prophetic when Lanier states “it

“Media change does not necessarily result in equilibrium. It sometimes creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it is the other way around. We must be careful in praising or condemning because the future may hold surprises for us” (Postman 29). Media critic Neil Postman published those words in 1985 in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Yet, as we find ourselves in 2015, his insight seems written for today. In our age where society is still elusively trying to grasp and figure out what place new media and technology hold within our lives, and where debating the merits and flaws of an increasingly technological society seems to be a hot-button issue, Postman had already commented on such

He starts going into the tv channels we watch, “Fifteen years ago, cable channels like TLC…, Bravo, and the History channel...promised to add texture and and information to the blighted tv landscape. Now these networks run shows about marrying people based on how well they kiss”. These are great examples on how tv channels that are now seen as “trash tv” at one point used to be educational and informative. Another example he used was, “...newspapers won Pulitzer prizes for telling us things we didn’t want to hear. We’ve responded by not buying newspapers anymore”. He’s pointing out to the audience that the newspapers know what they’re doing reporting information the reader needs to know and even award winning for doing their job well but as society declines intellectually so does the popularity of informative newspapers.

The internet is our modern source for news media; the importance of the newspaper has not only declined, it is in a sense, obsolete. We now turn to the internet for opinions, news, and entertainment. Even though the way in which we consume information (PBS) has changed, the importance of an unrestricted and watchful media has not changed. (Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, 2010)

Besides the media’s wide availability, another major factor that makes the media a powerful influencer over American culture is the media’s ability to select exactly what is spread to these mass audiences. Specific stories and topics can be publicized over others, and others could just be omitted. Since the media is the main source of information for the majority of the population, the stories, topics, and events that the media features on television, newspapers, and websites are what is directly affecting and

Throughout the years, popular culture has grown into an intellectually battle. Steven Johnson affirms that “the popuIar media steadily, but almost imperceptibly”, made “our minds sharper”. Johnson can be looked as an ideal example of the good impact the media has on its people. He doesn’t judge the negative advertisement, the numerous crimes presented on a daily basis or the violent television dramas but he explains how these are just a shell, a mantle and underneath it reveals a machinery meant to challenge and develop people’s mind.

The media use used by countless people every day and has helped shaped the way America is today. However, Charles Seife in the “Loneliness of the Interconnected”, argues that the media actually has the opposite result and it actually makes society more distant. The media provides us the medium to present our ideas to the world and find others who support their very ideas, and because of this we are only interested in the opinions and facts that agree with our own. So, as the people in society choose exactly what they want to listen to, they isolate themselves from divergent ideas. And since we are distant, we are becoming an ignorant society simply due to the fact that we are stubborn to hear and be exposed to other’s opinions. Seife is a

We live in a time where technology is constantly advancing, and the media is in every aspect of the typical American’s life. Our parents lived during a time without cell phones or televisions in their homes, their connection to the media was through books, magazines, newspapers, and the radio. As a twenty year old in 2016, I've always had a television, computer, and cell phone in my home, so my connection to the media was though what was on television, movies, video games, music, and many different things on the internet. Growing up I spent a lot of time playing outside and technology wasn’t something that had to be limited because it wasn’t a problem until I was a teenager. Now days it’s rare to come across a child who doesn’t have their own iPad, old smartphone, or a cell phone that is in service. Have you ever thought about how the media influences you, what you watch on television, the music you listen to, your views on certain subjects, when you have a question about something you look it up on the internet; then think about why you lean more

What is the first thing most Americans do when they wake up in the morning, when they get out of their car, or when they are done with school or work? They check their cell phones for updates. Currently media ,technology and their roles with communication have a strong hold over our everyday lives. We search for answers in the media and our tech, looking to form questions to get answers and learn to about how the world is affecting us personally. Through tech we decide what places we are going to go, our political opinions, what’s in style, and many other things that we seem to think is important . Mass media has developed dramatically over the last 100 years, and each change has influenced American’s culture in someway or another. This paper

The mass media has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. People read newspapers, magazines, own television, computer or (and) have access to the internet, so in