Effects of Mass Media Essay

Media has slowly taken over each America’s life and has an incredible amount of power in the decision process of each American. On a daily basis each American listens to the radio, surfs the internet and watches television. For these same reasons, media possess a large amount influence on a decision made by an American. With all the tools and gadgets today, it is very easy to become influenced by the media. Over the past century there have been many new media developments that have impacted our society; although there have been many, the ones we will focus on are radio, television, and the internet. Radio began in the early nineteen hundreds and soon became very popular between every American. The radio was a mean of learning of news quickly and served the great purpose of entertainment. Also, in the early nineteen hundreds the word television was introduced and the first moving film was televised. This quickly grew and it began to broadcast in black and white. In the middle of the nineteen hundreds, the internet was first introduced to the American government and soon was used to provide efficient communication between government agencies. The radio, television and the internet were all created in the nineteen hundreds and as soon as they were available to the American public, they grew and developed into a large form of communication. In 1912 the radio became a common product found in each American home. Every year after, the radio grew in popularity. One of the biggest impacts to America was the use of the radio during the World War I. In the late nineteen-twenties the first easy to use kinescope tube was created but the image was very poor. In the early nineteen-thirties the first television studios and broadcasting begin to happen and it sky rocketed after that. It has grown so much into American lives that now every household has more than one television. Americans see television for entertainment, education and news purposes on a dai ly basis. In the early nineteen-ninety the first internet browser was created. The internet has impacted Americans in so many ways, to the point that it is now used more than once by every American and it is carried by most in their pockets. Without question, the media has grown tremendously and impacts each America’s life on a daily basis. Media convergences have been a huge facilitator. Media convergence is the way that one devise or tool combines different media types. One of the most common is the cell phones. In almost every phone you can take photos, videos, send text messages, view the internet, play music, check email and use it for its original designed function-to make a phone call. The next commonly used media convergence is the computer. The computer allows you to create different types of documents, presentations, monetary forms and it also allows you to browse the World Wide Web while listening to music and receiving emails. The newest media convergence is tablets. Tablets have the same function of a cell phone and a computer in a compact, lightweight, and portable device. For all the above reasons and with all of the named tools, it is very important to be properly educated about media. Learning how to access, analyze, and evaluate the media is very important when making an everyday decision because we either read something on the internet, watch the television show or hear a commercial on the radio. Not everything that we read, see or hear is accurate. In most cases, we are tricked into believing things by the bias show or commercial that we are watching or hearing. Due to false or head fakes found in the media all schools and educational institutes should provide some form of media literacy education just like math, reading and writing. This may seem a basic or common sense information, but many believe without questions what they see or hear. As the great nation that the United States is, it should properly educate its citizens about media literacy. The internet, television and radio have definitely impacted every American’s life. With the tools like a computer, cell phone or tablet it is very easy to be influenced by the media. Some of the influence coincides with each individuals beliefs and other will clash but this is something that has to be learned how to balance. In addition to personal emotion believes on a subject, a lot of the media will try to trick into believing false statements. It is every America’s duty to make sure that he or she has the proper media knowledge to be able to access it, analyze it and evaluate it before making a decision. References Lule, J. (2012). Exploring Media and Culture (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Flat World Knowledge, Inc. Besley, John C. (Summer 2008). Media Use and Human Values: Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; ProQuest Zil, Karen. (Mar/Apr 2002). Media Literacy: Television meets the Internet; MultiMedia Schools