Understanding Mass Media

In our previous class, we discussed the different ways people receive messages and the different stages of the mass media: elitist stage, popular stage, and specialized stage. In these stages, I could see the evolution in each. The Elite stage was for the wealthier upper class people and focused mainly on communication towards them. The popular stage addressed a broader group of people and less inclusive. The specialized stage focused on more specifics of the popular group. Examples of this transformation could be a television. During the Elite stage, TV was found only in wealthy homes. As the popular stage began to occur, more and more people owned televisions. Now, we are in the specialized stage where TV’s are becoming more detailed and technical, like the 3-D TV or LCD. In class, we also discussed selective retention and selective perception and the difference between both. An example of selective retention is if I look up to Lebron James because he is a famous basketball player and I find out that he is taking drugs and setting a bad example for kids, I would avoid the bad things because I am only interested in the good things about him.  A good example of selective perception is going into the subway and not listening to a homeless man who has something important to say because I believe he never has anything important to say.

The reading, Mass Media in Modern Society, focused on social media during the 18^th-20^th centuries. The four theories of the press shapes how we see media in our world today. We first used media to strictly further government policy. Then we began using it to check on government and also meeting needs of others including entertainment. From this reading, I understood that the media had a lot of controversies. Whether it was publicly or privately posted, media chose to address only the things that they chose to expose. Along with that, they also chose to address the wealthier crowds.

I also understood the different functions of the media; that the media focuses on addressing surveillance, Correlation, and transmission. Some conflicts that the media had to be aware of is the amount of information exposed to the people. For example, if media was addressing a serious hurricane watch and the news was showing a dangerous hurricane, people would react frightened and fearful. Therefore, media has to make sure that the people receive information in a way that they do not over react to, if it is possible. 

I thought it was really interesting how examples were given about reporters leaving out words or descriptions that would jeopardize their community, country, family, etc. The true story changes when it is about something that the reporters/editors are familiar with.