The Sociological Impact Of The Media And The Mass Media

In contrast Marshall McLuhan described how he believed that medium is literally the message. "The Medium" is a theory made by McLuhan himself as he expressed that a medium is any augmentation of ourselves. If McLuhan was a live today he would considered the social media as a median. The message, McLuhan clarifies, is the change that is brought into human social life. Along these lines, the medium is the message, as per McLuhan, implies that the aftereffects of an adjustment in human culture is brought about by a recently presented innovation. McLuhan keeps on indicating out that society ought not get to be occupied by the substance, which is not the same as the

Malcolm X once said “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that is the power. Because they control the mind of the masses.” According to Study.com “Mass media consist of any means of communication intended to reach a general, public audience. Note that mass media is widely used to reference the entire public communications industry, including newspaper, magazines, flyers, billboards, automated telemarketing, radio broadcasts, television broadcast, internet articles, and social media posts.” (Dugger, Development of Mass Media) Mass media is in our everyday lives, and as Malcolm X said it has the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent. That’s how powerful our media is, and news reporters are fabricating the story and twisting headlines and creating their own story. Isn’t about time the news starts reporting the facts? The media is racially bias because they sugar coat Caucasian people and their actions, they over represent African-American crime rates, and they always find a way to justify a Caucasian police officer killing an unarmed African-American male.

Today’s topics were mostly on masculinity with some feminism topics and mass media. The topics that stuck with me the most were about how masculinity is used, the feminist movements over time and the mass media’s involvement in citizens life. For men to show there masculinity features they would have to prove their masculinities through test established by another male figure above that individual man. This could be seen when a father tells his son that if he wants to prove that he is a big boy he will take care of his younger sister. This gives the son a sense of duty and responsibility over someone else and overall show his power to his younger sister. This in turn would make the younger sister feel as if she is weak because it seems she needs to be taken care of.

Rapist. Murderer. Robber. Sex Offender. Burglar. Gang Leader. All names that are given to African-Americans. But, rarely do we see them described by their positive attributes. The documentary, 13th, talks about mass incarceration and racial bias against African-Americans. The racial bias is growing more and more; it has transitioned from slavery to the police brutality and clear hierarchy known today. The media plays a big part in this because they portray blacks a certain way, giving negative and incorrect impressions to their viewers. The over-publicity and exaggerated exposition of African-American crimes by the media have contributed to the mass aggression and discriminatory beliefs towards them.

In our 21st century reality, new media and technology has transformed, with little resistance, almost every aspect of daily life; redefining our reality. From plasma screens to monitors to smartphones, we are constantly face to face with the black screens of our devices, or ‘black mirrors’. Canadian professor, Marshall Mcluhan described media as “artificial extensions of sensory existence,”; meaning, each media technology functions as a prosthetic, working in conjunction with our minds and bodies, allowing us to perceive more and reshaping our perception of the world (1969). This approach emphasises the impossibility of fully understanding social and cultural changes in society without understanding how media works as environments (Griffin, 2011).

Why is mass media influencing the American culture? This is what we are going to be discussing in this essay. It’s important that we understand where the media has come from and where it is now and the journey that it is taking the American culture in the last century. America has now explored what un-traditional media and it has a major impact on the culture called new media.

When it comes to culture and society and its relations to the media, many theorists have come to develop an understanding of how it is that media has changed or is changing our understanding of modern society. The media is commonly known as the different modes of communication, which is the ability to communicate through a specific type of mode in which information has to pass from point A to B. An example of media taking effect is seen in the use of newspapers and how it is used as a medium to inform people of events happening around them. In addition, Marshal McLuhan and Raymond Williams, developed two different theories towards the development and effects of the media. McLuhan explains his theory through his book “The Medium is the Massage”, which explains how the media is the medium for everything we interact with. On the other hand, William rejects McLuhan’s idea through his article “The Technology and Society”. In his article, he states how McLuhan’s theory is in error because his theory gets rid of technology from society rather than explaining how they both interact with each other. However, both of their theories are very important when understanding how media has allowed humans to communicate, interact, and change the world we live in.

Mass media has a huge influence on communities across America. There are numerous mass media platforms like the internet, tv, magazines, and radio. Through the use of this platforms, messages are able to be given to the public at a huge and rapid rate. Information can at times, however, be misleading. Due to the fact that the media has a huge influence on the views of people, it is often used as a way to deteriorate the image of a certain group or individual, underrepresenting them in the entertainment business. In the 1950’s African Americans were underrepresented in the media, accounting for 6% of tv characters. Their numbers increased to 16% in the 1980’s (Rodriguez 13). That, however, has not been the case for the Hispanic/ Latino community. The Hispanic / Latino community are underrepresented in the mass media, being portrayed negatively in their moments in the media.

Over the last 500 years, the influence of mass media has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. First there were books, then newspapers, magazines, photography, sound recordings, films, radio, television, the so-called New Media of the Internet, and now social media.

Throughout history, mass media coverage, which is most common in developed nations, has been a key benefactor, among several factors, that has influenced science, public policy, knowledge, and aptitude. A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press found in the United States that television ranks number one as the leading source of daily news followed by newspapers, radio, and the internet. Knowledge has never been so easily accessible than it is now, with the latest news being available to us, whenever and usually wherever. We are able to communicate with others on opposite hemispheres and learn about another country’s values and customs without actually going there. Regrettably, due to the media’s extensiveness and accessibility it inevitably bears certain problems as it reports information that is inadequate or creates bias. As a society, we should rethink some opinions and investigate numerous perspectives before making judgments in order to avoid prejudice.

These ideologies are so prevalent in recent society that they have swayed the minds of those who were not interested enough to take a side on an issue, and this has caused a large increase in the amount of people who still believe in unlikely conspiracies or hoaxes. This has caused a large uproar and scepticism of the government, and with more evidence proving the governments secrecy, and conspiracy theories coming true, the citizens of countries are getting more paranoid of their own country and others around the world.

Mass media has inched its way into almost every facet of our daily lives. No one feels this intrusion more so than women. The market is geared towards them as the biggest consumer in our society. As a woman I am aware of this fact, but not only am I a woman, I am a woman who works in the advertising business. I have a unique perspective on both sides of the spectrum. How does all this focus effect us? How does this attention effect the way we perceive ourselves? Is it harmful? Can it be helpful? These are the question I am going to answer the best I can today.

In this day and age, most anyone can find out just about anything, on any subject, at any time with just a few clicks of a button. The act of gathering information used to be a much more tedious and physical endeavor. However, these days it can be done with ease thanks to the enormous developments in mass media distribution over the last century. The major mode of information distribution has went from mostly print to internet and everything in between. The amount of people reached has grown dramatically from a few hundred to millions in an instant.

Mass media has become easily accessible and has grown bigger than anyone could have imagined 20 years ago, for the invention of the internet, mass media is able to reach a bigger audience at an almost unbelievable rate. Many people depend on mass media as a source of information, taking the information at face value, perpetuating the information they received unto others. Whether the information be about politicians, world affairs, and or the police, we, as society, do believe what we see and hear, though we often don’t question or ponder the validity of such information. This research was created in order to contribute insight on how our perceptions of police are crafted by the information we receive, but this insight isn’t limited to the police and we should we question what we receive, for provided information may not be necessarily true or an accurate representation of a group or entity. Gathering information from one source doesn’t further one’s knowledge of a subject, but through many sources, one can garnish an ideal that may be fair and neutral and if one were to blindly accept the information fed by the mass media, social media, physical interactions, and worth of mouth, thus would create misconception and misinformation.

He said that media is an extension of the human body, it represents the development so that we understood that the development is needed now, in order to adapt to human needs the science and technology. Thus, "the medium is the message" to emphasize that the use of communication tools have profoundly. (McLuhan, 1964, page 7)