Posts Tagged: media dependency

This week I enjoyed reading about media dependency and the uses and gratifications theory and applying such theories to mass communication. Mass media is such an imperative part of society which makes it even more detrimental to understand it.

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?

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?

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?

I wonder. Based on the chapters for this week, it sounds like from the get go mass media has been the target of criticism regarding the negative affects on society. Even now I still see signs of media being analyzed in a negative light. Part of the chapter specifically focuses on propaganda. So, my question is why propaganda is viewed in this negative light? One of my other teachers said that propaganda is neither good or bad, but there is still a negative connotation attached. So, why?

According to chapter 6, the more we use media, the more dependent we become on it. Yet, despite the threat of dependency our society incorporates more and more technology into our lives. When do we reach the point where media dependency becomes a major issue and if we have to revert, will we be able to?

I am looking at the section on third-person effect right now and I am not sure if the examples they use really prove their theory or not. It seems like all the of the people they asked about various subjects said they would not be affected by something, but others would. Therefore, what methods were