Hello and welcome to Communication in the 21st Century! This blog was created for my New Communication Technologies course at Florida State University. For this assignment I was asked to contribute to the blogosphere in order to gain experience producing original content that can be seen by "the real world," the world outside of the classroom, that is!
In this series of blog posts over the course of the week I will discuss the impact media has upon its audiences socially. Our textbook for the course, Media Now, breaks down media’s influence over behavior into two categories: antisocial and prosocial behavior. Media Now defines antisocial behavior as behavior that is, “contrary to prevailing norms for social conduct.” (419) I’ll be focusing on one specific way in which the media influences society antisocially: toward violence and crime.
Many theorists believe that the media has a direct influence over the actions of its audience. I will investigate critical theories used in media effects studies and explore an example of these theories in action from current events.
Before we begin, though, I’d like to hear what you think. What are the ways that you see the media shaping behavior? Do you think the media’s influence is positive or negative?
Looking forward to hearing from you and don’t forget to check back throughout the rest of this week!
I guess it depends on what you mean by media. I am assuming you mean a fairly broad application, meaning any kind of video, image, or text that conveys an idea.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think media is more of a catalyst. A person can either have a positive or negative outlook on the world, and they will tend to consume media that reinforces their own ideas. Just like people tend to spend time with people they are similar to, they consume media that they identify with, which reinforces their particular outlook. Media's influence is not positive nor negative, in and of itself, but it tends to move people toward extremes in either direction. Just my thoughts. I hope this helps.
Thanks!
I think that the way media influences our behavior is that it expands what we're capable of. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan argued that any medium can be seen as an extension of ourselves.
ReplyDeleteFor example, we, as humans, started out in an oral society without a written language. Heavy emphasis was placed on the ability to memorize information. There was no way to pass down information except by memorizing old stories. As a result, morals were often told in the form of stories that were passed down.
In our modern society, with Google, computers, and limitless amounts of data storage, we do not need to memorize. In fact, the way we teach is influenced by media because we don't need to teach students to memorize facts; instead, we need to teach students to interpret facts and understand how facts impact our lives.
In the same way, our natural selves are social, communal beings. For example, James Carey argued that there are two forms of communication: transmission communication and ritual communication. Transmission communication is the idea of imparting information; this can be seen in a classroom via lecture. Ritual communication is less about the information and more about the experience. In ritual communication, we may talk about what we read in the newspaper, but what’s more important than the news is the fact that we found something to relate to. On Twitter, I’m able to converse with people about a topic like boxing, and while I’m not learning new information, I’m finding a common ground that allows for pro-social, ritual communication.
New media extends our ability for ritual, pro-social behavior.
To me, media is negative. But, not in the sense that most people take negative means. To blame media as having ill effects is like blaming McDonald's for making you fat.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, I mean negative in the sense that media takes away the ability for an individual to form unbiased opinions. If we see a picture of destruction in a war zone most will automatically view war as bad, but as we slowly research the causes and possible benefits of that war we will rethink our opinion. For example, if we were shown pictures of the beach during D-Day without any background information we would formulate the we should get out of the war. But, once we find out we fought that battle in order to free millions of innocent people our opinions may change.
I see the media shaping behaviour most in the area of communication. It seems News stories, written articles, and videos must be made denser, or viewers' attention is lost. This in turn is causing quicker-paced communication. People want to gather up information at a quicker pace, lest it be too slow and disatisfying.
ReplyDeleteMedia is a positive thing. It enlightens many to otherwise unheard of information.
nguyer--I should have defined what I mean by media, sorry about that! I'm focusing mostly on new media (i.e. new communication technology) but yes, I do broadly mean the medium or catalyst for an idea. I think in today's culture media is most commonly related to the Internet and television but newspapers, radio etc. are also media. Thank you for your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteAndrew--Thank you for sharing such cool information! It's clear based on your evidence that the media definitely can promote social behavior and, like you said, is an extension of ourselves. I also think that because we are a media-saturated society, mass media should be responsible with what is put in the public domain. In my later posts and in the one I posted yesterday, I [will] discuss some controversial ways the media promotes anti-social behavior.
ReplyDeleteMikayla--You touched on something I think is very important in your comment: the responsibility of the audience. I think you're definitely right to say that it would be ridiculous to blame McDonald's for making you fat! While the media does have power in swaying opinions and should be responsible, the audience also is ultimately in control of their own actions.
ReplyDeleteTreebeard--Evidence for this shortening attention span can be found everywhere... from micro-blogging sites like Twitter to the constantly shortening lengths of television commercials! Next thing we know newspapers will be written in text lingo! ;-)
ReplyDelete