Media and Society

The internet and social media are something that I grew up both with and without. I use the internet for mostly informational purposes and have been since I started using it. Social media grew up with me the same way that I grew up with it, and it has impacted my life since its use became prevalent. I use social media every day for communication as well as entertainment. It is something that will not be going away any time soon, so I continue to work on having a healthy relationship with social media and the internet. Some of my favorite social media are photo and video sharing apps. I enjoy these the most because they are the most visually stimulating and are being constantly updated with new content. 

The public relations field is something I am very interested in. Public relations were shaped by advances in technology, the growth of the middle class, the growth of organizations, better research tools, and professionalization (pg. 281). All of these influences had made the public relations field both broad and niche at the same time. It has been proven as an essential part of the business and is necessary within the age of the internet and social media. I think the public relations field has to be conscious of every move they make and to be extremely aware of their audience, but also those not within their target market because anyone that is observing can see and judge anything.

Advertising is essential to business. This is a large part of how they make their money. The internet has changed advertising forever. No matter what website I am on there is an advertisement. The thing that is the most bothersome about advertisements is that no matter what I may be considering buying even for a second, I will see hundreds of ads for that item for the rest of my life. I see things that I wanted to buy a couple of years ago still in my advertisements. This is extremely frustrating for a consumer. I also believe that it can bring up a lack of trust within what is being advertised. I know that when I see constant ads for something it makes me not want to buy it. 

As we have learned, the effect of mass communication is huge! Mass communication has changed every part of the world, especially within the internet. That being said, there are many negative effects that this mass communication can have, such as stereotypes being reinforced and upheld via the internet and the media usage and aggression link. I find this link very telling and it is another reminder to be conscious about what we are consuming. If we are constantly being exposed to harmful and negative media, then we are going to become more harmful and negative. It is similar to the saying “you are what you eat”. Essentially, you are what you consume. So similar to the food you’re eating, what you’re putting in your brain matters too.

 decided to look at my media usage for today March 8th, as it is the first day that I have not been traveling. I feel that when I am on vacation, I am not on my phone that often. But, I was definitely wrong. Last week in total, on average, I spent 7 hours and 30 minutes a day on my phone. The majority of it was on socials like I predicted, but also had a higher percentage of game usage, which was due to me being at the airport for so much of my time last week.

 It was also interesting to see that during this trip I was up 50% of usage than the previous week where I was not on vacation. I realize that this is due to the many photo apps I use and the amount of free time I did have to be on my phone. This made me feel shocked. 

Today, I have already spent 8 hours on my phone. Most of it is also spent on socials, like Instagram,  tik tok, and snapchat. 

How I feel on socials when I am on vacation is that I feel connected to my people back home. I also am seeing a lot of beautiful things and I want to share the beauty with others. How I feel on socials when I am not on vacation is the same feeling- connected. Though underlying that feeling, there was also inherent stress. It was stressful when I am getting emails from things such as school and work while in a place where I actually feel disconnected from that reality. So, that connected feeling is somewhat of a facade. 

Chapter 8 is based on Television, Cable, and Mobile Video. My favorite TV shows are Mad Men, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Gray’s Anatomy, and many others. The one thing the book touched on was how great television, cable, and mobile video are as advertising mediums. That is my number one complaint about these three things is how many commercials there are. It is very frustrating. I currently do not pay for cable, but I do use streaming services where there are fewer advertisements but still few. I barely watch things like YouTube anymore because of this advertising aspect. I even remember the days before these advertisements on Youtube. It would be nice to go back.

Chapter 6 is based on Film. Some of my favorite film genres are horror, drama, and romance. I also like some comedies. Something interesting is the effect that these genres had on the movie industry. More genres, more problems the book says. This is because movie companies were funneling out many movies post-Great depression, as new genres held people’s attention, and were eventually accused of illegal monopolizing of the market, which ensued many years of fighting against this as well as major blows for major movie corporations. MY favorite movie of all time is called Blue Ruin. It is a very interesting and unique movie with many tragedies overlayed within it. It is described as a “slow burn” which I definitely agree with. It is on Netflix if any of you want to check it out.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5, had a lot of interesting information about three things I love very much: books, newspapers, and magazines. Starting off with books, I found the discussion on the convergence with technology is reshaping the book industry interesting. I love books and used to read whatever I can get my hands on. The feeling of reading a physical book is ideal, I do own a Kindle e-reader (guilty) and I read on there when I do not have a physical book. When I went to the book lofts bookstore in German Village, I saw many wonderful books. But I know that since I have a Kindle and can buy them for much cheaper than paying for the book in the store. So, the titles I chose to buy were one book that I thought seemed interesting for myself and two books to give as gifts to my parents. This led to me thinking that I own a lot of physical books and buy a lot of physical books, but when I looked at my Kindle, I have bought many more ebooks than I do have on paper. This surprised me, but the chapter reminded me that this is the case for many people. This convergence of books and technology has definitely affected my reading experience.

When it comes to the subject of magazines and newspapers, I have an appreciation for them, but definitely not a need for them. This feeling of lack of need can be seen with the decline in the need for newspapers with a dramatic loss of competition. There are many reasons for this, but one main reason is the fact most people have a mini T.V. with nonstop news in their hand or pocket at all times: a smartphone. The need for the expensive pieces of paper that take up significant space and are wasteful when it is possible to get that same thing online for free through news websites and newspapers. The same thing can be said about magazines, where T.V. and the internet had definitely changed the scope of competition. Most magazines have online equivalents but have better luck than their newspaper counterparts because they stand out as much more appealing in a media cluttered world, although they do face competition from other media forms. 

The first chapter of the book Introduction to Mass Communication Tenth Edition by  Stanley J. Baron titled Mass Communication, Culture, and Media Literacy defines communication, interpersonal communication,  mass communication, media, and culture. It also explores how communication works, when technology is in the process, and how different views on communication can lead to differences in the interpretation of their power. With constant new technology,  these issues are more crucial than ever. One thing that was focused on in the article that I found interesting is the focus on the relationship between communication, mass media, and culture. Mass media is, in fact, culture, as we use these technologies to debate cultural meaning. Media literacy is the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use any form of mediated communication. Media literacy is key to have in today’s world, with the constant changes that get involved with how as a species we communicate. The second chapter titled Convergence and the Reshaping of Mass Communication focuses on those same changes. Six trends are abetting the technology influx situation- convergence, audience fragmentation, concentration of ownership, conglomeration, globalization, and hypercommercialism. With these change trends continuing, where media consumption is at an all-time high, we as consumers need to be on top of this media and communication evolution. Overall, I found that summarizing these chapters made the most sense for me on how to explain my thoughts. I believe it is vital to be aware of how much media affects us in our core selves. The only way to have this not control us is if we are aware of it, like the book gives us. I also found that I become more aware of my technology use the older I get. I would like to know if this is normal. That is why I included the photo I did- I do not want to be like that person.