The masses and I

Mass Media : How do you understand the term Mass Media? Use examples and draw from the key debates to articulate your own position.

This morning I turned on the TV and as I was flipping through the channels, I saw so many different programs that simply had no interest to me. Whatever happened to watching Bugs Bunny and Tweety while eating your favourite morning cereal? As quickly as I turned it on, I turned it back off, wondering why is there so much crap on Sunday mornings? Everything that is broadcast on TV was designed to reach people with information. It's no different than the radio, the internet or print media. By using these methods, information (whether good or 'crap') can reach the masses. There's always going to be information that may not be relevant to me, but because of how natural it is to take in the media from these sources, I don't really see the need to complain about it.

Personally, I look at a TV as a boat. Everything that is on the boat is the information that is to be sent and recieved by others. It travels to and from place to place to deliever information and pick up new information. I look at mass media as all the different vehicles that do the same thing. Whether it be by radio, newspaper or the internet, information is constantly traveling, even if I am not aware of it. It's all around me, and I may complain about it, but I take for granted just how much we use it.

"Narcissus narcosis, a syndrome whereby man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in." ( The Playboy Inteview - Marshal McLuhan )

If the mass media could somehow be stripped from the lives of everyone, then people would realize just how important it is. People would realize how much we really need it. We wouldn't have TV's to find about all the latest headlines happening around the world. We wouldn't have the internet to talk to our friends on social networking communities. Everything that would be considered news to us, we would have to experience first hand spread by word of mouth, just like before print media was invented. You might appreciate that silence from the media because of all the depressing things that you hear on the news, but when a disease strikes closer to home and you have no idea about it, you could fall victim to it and not even know about it.

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Sources Cited

The Playboy Interview : Marshall McLuhan. Web. 4 Oct 2009.(http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html).