Sep 16 2010
Response Week 2
After our in class discussions about the readings this week I decided to respond to my questions but add a little more of a class discussion comment section at the end of the question responses.
1 . The author states that “persuasion lies at the heart of mass media” and though this may be true for most, my question is: are there any media outlets that strive to broadcast or project their content/information in a manner of helping an audience without persuasion or will there always be persuasion in any type of media driven message?
I believe persuasion is always going to be prominent whether it is intentional or accidental because even news websites disclose certain news stories through the process of media screening. Another question could be is media screening ethical? Is it ok for media producers to play “god” but that is a whole new day and conversation. As discussed in the agenda setting section, the media sets the public agenda and even news sites frame what news/information is made public. The five mechanisms of agenda setting occur almost in every way for information delivery and persuasion will always be at the heart of the media, I think.
2. Without the media in a time of crisis, would the delivery of messages be compromised in a way that a lot of false information would flare from lack of media consistency? Is this dependency on the media in a way an addiction or just because mass media is so large people have no choice but to depend on the media?
I believe since our country is so dependent on the media that without it at this point it would hurt our economy and society more than it would help it to take it away. Once again this goes back to the agenda setting theory because the media sets the stage as to what people see as imperative or news period which means the media frames what is considered disastrous and detrimental society knows about. Nonetheless, the author says ” that because of its role in agenda setting, the press does not exert a major influence on public opinion but at the same time the public has a role in the interpretation of messages,” which in turn contributes to societies need and reliance on the media, especially in a time of need or crisis.
3. In today’s society, would you agree that television is the medium of choice or has our current society shifted to the Internet and website use? In addition to this, is social media an effective tool to gather credible information or is it just another medium that contributes to the media dependency theory?
After reviewing this question I realized I don’t really like it because it makes sense but it is a situation dependent question because some people may use the internet non-stop but still pick the television for imperative information and some may use the TV for noise and other use the internet for imperative information because it is easily accessible on many different devices. The media systems dependency theory is termed as “a systems theory because it examines the relationship among social systems, media systems and audiences and how each of these interact and affects one another. Although social media is a part of this theory it is not necessarily a contribution to it. Also, I do not believe social media is a credible source for information because it is highly opinionated and difficult to map for credible information.
As far as the class discussion, I really enjoyed the talk about the diffusion theory because as I was reading, it was hard for me to understand how the innovators and early adapters, etc played a role in the bell curve. It was also great because I am able to use this theory in helping with my research. Diffusion’s innovation process, I believe is a great way to explain the process of adopting new media’s and the five discrete stages are great for understanding the reason behind the theory in general. At first these chapters seemed like just another theory reading but after I realized these theories have a major impact on our society.